Dave Richards: It's time to have some fun

For the past month and a half or so, my weekend entertainment has largely consisted of playing Words with Friends over my iPhone.

Scored a 62-pointer against my daughter.

Woo-hoo.

This is not like me. I usually score higher. Whoops. I mean, I'm usually catching a band, a movie, a drink, a show, a comedian or a cab ride home if I had too much fun at any of the preceding.

When your 21-year-old son goes through open-heart surgery, though, going out goes off the table. I did not feel like living it up the week or so before the surgery; that wouldn't have felt right.

Afterward, when he finally got home and ached and needed help getting meals, keeping his meds straight, and just going up and down stairs, going out was out of the question.

That wouldn't have been right, period.

Lately, he's doing much better. It's just a matter of healing, now. In fact, he's supposed to get up and do things, to move around. I suggested he try moving the vacuum cleaner around, but that didn't go over too well.

Instead, last weekend, Steve and I hit the casino or should I say, the casino hit us. He lasted about two hours, then fortunately tired out before his wallet gave out. But it was nice to bust out -- for both of us.

Today marks one month since the surgery. He's progressing nicely, which means I'm ready, willing and able to report for weekend duty again.

Movies! "Oz the Great and Powerful," here I come. You gave the Scarecrow a heart already, but that's OK. Steve's doing fine with his.

I'm anxious to see how Sam Raimi fares with "The Wizard of Oz" prequel. It's not easy to tackle a classic; ask J.J. Abrams, who will give us a new installment of "Star Wars" in 2015. But I'm confident Raimi will do it justice. He did the "Spider-Man" origin story well. Why not a wizard's?

Good choices abound. Adam's Ale, with two former members of Waterband (including John Welton) and Cliff Starbuck, a longtime member of Ekoostik Hookah, will bring their uplifting jams to the Crooked I tonight.

Then again, the Bastard Bearded Irishmen, with special guest Randy Baumann, will turn Sherlock's into a jig-rock dancing frenzy tonight. Meanwhile, the Arts & Drafts Festival at Brewerie at Union Station features artists aplenty -- musical and otherwise -- tonight and Saturday.

Tough decisions must be made, but it's nice to have other choices than "what's on TV?"